Emigrating Landlords

The unfortunate continuing trend of emigration from our shores is not only limited to jobseekers and young graduates but extends to many other groups, including landlords. Not everyone can be as inventive as Féilim Mac an Iomaire, and so we’ve noticed more properties being added to our books thanks to these emigrating landlords. Obviously enough, it’s difficult to manage a property when you’re not in the same country as it, so the logical move is to find a high quality property management company to take care of any issues. Below is some useful information that any and every emigrating landlord needs to know.

PRTB Registration

Most landlords will already be familiar with the Private Residential Tenancy Board, but for any first time landlords here’s a quick summary. The PRTB is an organisation who provides primarily a dispute resolution service but also as the name suggests, provides a tenant registering service. It is required by law (under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004), to register all tenancies and it is only after registration that you can access the dispute resolution service. The PRTB also carries out research which is then used to give policy recommendations and information to the government on the private rented sector. To register, you must complete an application for a pay a fee of €90 per tenancy or a late fee of €180. The FAQ page on the PRTB website provides excellent and very detailed information on the process, found here . A non resident landlord is obliged to register tenancies.

Tax

When rent is directly paid from a tenant to a non resident landlord, the tenant must withhold an amount equivalent to the standard rate of tax from the gross rent and submit it to the Revenue Commissioners. At the end of the year a tenant must fill out the Form R185 and send it to the landlord as proof that the tax has been paid. The landlord can then claim this as credit.

If the letting of the property has been done through an agent, the rent is paid to the agent in full. (S)he must submit an annual tax return  and account for the tax under the Self Assessment process. We recommend visiting www.revenue.ie for further information.

Second Property Tax

The second property tax relates to non principal private residencies, i.e. if you live in Dublin but own a property in Cork then you must pay tax on the Cork property but not the Dublin home. The tax amounts to €200, which must be paid within two months of March 31st (liability date), although there is a months grace period. After that a late fee of €20 per month is charged. Like the PRTB, applications and payments can be done online.